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Sometimes There Are No Winners
February 25th 2002
By Bryan Hersh of 49ers Paradise
I don't know what inspired me to write this. Heck it may just be that I'm in a trough rather than at a peek. I guess we wont really know - but sometimes there are no winners. Of course, I'm throwing yet another spin on the soap opera now known as "The Tampa Bay Story". Normally I'm the optimist, the one who can find the silver lining is losing a player like Jerry Rice or Steve Young - but could it be, this time, despite my past optimistic expulsions, there may be now winner.

Let's start with the Raiders. They are a team who despite receiving unreal compensation for their coach, are now without one of the most powerful minds in football. John Gruden is easily one of the best minds in football today, and while he and owner Al Davis don't get along, if the Raiders were to improve on last season, with their veteran squad it would have to be under Gruden.

Tampa Bay is another team of losers. In order to secure their coach, the team essentially sacrificed their future. Not a bright move considering the aging talent on that team. To make matters worse, the Bucs were expected to get compensation back for their general manager. It never happened. Now the outcome is much like that Urban Tail, where a person is at a party with a fortune teller who can't tell them their fortune, but rather rights it on paper for them to read later. On the way home the person dies in a car crash, the paper of course reading "you have no future"; well that is essentially the Bucs - with no high picks for the next two years, the Bucs don't have much of a future. Even if they can survive the next couple of seasons, they will be hit hard shortly after with no draft picks to replenish their talent.

The 49ers of course have the obvious doubts. Does the 'rift' proclaimed by the media between Mariucci and the front office grow? Does Terrell Owens become more bitter? Does Mariucci further question his future with the team? This list is virtually endless.

So after a couple weeks of reminding everyone of the endless positives, and how good each team made out from this deal - I thought I'd burst the bubble. I still think, for the 49ers at least, the positives out weigh the negatives - but I am aware, well aware that things might not be as sweet as well all want them to be.